American Woman: NZIFF Review

American Woman: NZIFF Review

Sienna Miller excels in this portrait of life after grief from director Jake Scott.

Book-ending the film with two distinct portraits of the same character, Miller is Deb, a wild-child mum at 16, now a grandma at 38. With a laissez-faire attitude to both her own family (including a fraught relationship with mother and sister)and reputation, Deb's heading for destruction.

But when her daughter goes missing, Deb finds her world completely changed, as she becomes a sole carer to her grandchild and needs to re-evaluate, and start over again.

Essentially a portrait of grief, survival and coping, American Woman's strength in its familiar story comes from its lead actress, who burns up the screen with a powerhouse performance from the moment it begins.

Miller gives Deb a fiery heart at the start that allows you to support her through everything - from her sister (played admirably by Christina Hendricks) and her judgement through love to the abusive cheating men she aligns herself with.

"You make do with what's left" Deb says at one point early on, and that's equally true of what Miller delivers with Scott's material of flawed people and life's mistakes and bumps.

Scott delivers some time jumps that bleed into the screenplay with ease as years segue, and lives evolve; it's a fascinating technique that never disorients but cleverly ruffles perceptions and the usual dramatic cliches.

Ultimately, it's the honesty of American Woman, coupled with an awards-worthy performance from Miller, that wins you over - quiet moments deliver such gutpunches towards the end that you realise how invested you are in Deb's life.

It's a powerfully acted film that breathes life into a story and tropes we've all seen a million times before - and for that, it's one of the festival's most quiet and under-lauded triumphs.

NZIFF 2019 Q&A - Armagan Ballantyne - Hush (part of Short Connections)

NZIFF 2019 Q&A - Armagan Ballantyne - Hush (part of Short Connections)

My film is…. HUSH

The moment I'm most proud of is….I loved how up for a challenge the Toi Whakaari Actors were, I’m really proud of them.

The reason I carried on with this film when it got tough is….. Because so many of the crew had given their time generously I knew I needed to push through the tricky bits and try to make something they could feel proud of

The one moment that will resonate with an audience is…….Hopefully the scene in the spa where Ava connects with her friend after feeling alone in the world

The hardest thing I had to cut from this film is........
We had shot a couple of scenes that had lovely performances from other actors in them but we needed to cut them so the film wasn’t too long

The thing I want people to take from this film is …… I hope people will empathise with Ava and her struggle to find comfort because she doesn't feel like she can honestly express what has happened to her.

The reason I love the NZIFF is……. There is nothing better than sitting in the Mighty Civic filled with people and watching a Film Festival film !

What I want to see at this year's NZIFF is......So many ! All the Agnes Varda films, The Invisible Life of Euridive Gusmao, For my Father’s Kingdom,  Animals, Bellbird, Come to Daddy, Judy and Punch to name a few…

The one thing I'd say to aspiring filmmakers is….. Try not to be too hard on yourself, you learn the most from your mistakes !

NZIFF Q&A 2019 - Adriana Martins da Silva, director of Upstream

NZIFF Q&A 2019 - Adriana Martins da Silva, director of Upstream

My film is....”Upstream” from the Short connections’ section. / a part of myself. All films
are but this one more so. The story is deeply connected to my journey here in New
Zealand.

The moment I'm most proud of is.... Getting the local community as involved and central to the making of this film as the professional cast and crew. From Palmy all the way to Portugal. From my neighbour next door building props for the film, to my boss from the hospital brewing beers for the crew. The weaving of the cultures and
relationships that happened on and off screen is what I’m most proud of. For me a film is as much about the end result as it is about the whole journey getting there.

The reason I carried on with this film when it got tough is.....The same reason that made me want to birth the film in the first place. Wanting to honour my journey in New Zealand, the people, the land. As well as my own roots. I’m not the same girl that arrived here on the 1st of January 2014. This land has taught me so much... Whenever it got tough (and there were many such times), that calling is where I sourced the strength to carry on.

The one moment that will resonate with an audience is.......I hope more than one moment, but I’m sensing the last scenes of the film will resonate more deeply.

The hardest thing I had to cut from this film is........
The scene that takes place at Tui’s kitchen. It had so many details on the page and we ended up having so little time to shoot it... It’s still hard for me to watch it without cringing.

The thing I want people to take from this film is ......
I’m not really into telling people what to think or feel. A film has its own personal resonance with each person and their life experience. That relationship is sacred to me and it sits at the core of the magic of storytelling.

The reason I love the NZIFF is.......It’s such a diverse program that screens all across the country! It’s remarkable, really. I love that is not centralized to one city, we don’t have that in Portugal.

What I want to see at this year's NZIFF is......
Well, first of all our film on the big screen, of course! (laughs) But every year I’m especially keen on the Aotearoa section of the festival. Kiwi humour has grown immensely on me and I value any opportunity to immerse and learn about Maori culture. Also, this year I’m quite keen on the Agnès
Varda section of the festival .

The one thing I'd say to aspiring filmmakers is…..
If you can feel it in your heart, you can do it. Don’t let perfectionism or the lack of resources get in the way, just start.
Be flexible, as things will change. Actually, a LOT will change. And that’s the beauty of it as well. It’s like a dance... So stay centred and keep listening to the beat and enjoy the ride.

Brittany Runs a Marathon: NZIFF Review

Brittany Runs a Marathon: NZIFF Review

Easily one of the most commercial films of the festival, and crowd-pleasing in extremis, Brittany Runs a Marathon's commitment to good humour and geniality is obvious from the get go.

Jillian Bell is Brittany, an overweight party goer who's in a dead end attendant job at the local theatre, and whose propensity for casual hook ups and nothing serious has sent her into an early downward spiral.

Heading to the doctor to score some free drugs, Brittany gets a wake up call and decides to lose some weight and shake her life up.

The lifestyle-choices-catch-up-with-you sentiment is not exactly a new one, and the sentimental edges of Brittany Runs a Marathon can be seen coming a mile off, but that doesn't mean Paul Downs Colaizzo's screenplay doesn't present some highlights and positivity for everyone to take away.

Pitch Perfect's Jillian Bell makes great fist of the comedic elements of the script, and there are some genuine laugh-out-loud moments as the authentic and earnest film plays out, and deals out a character that's messed up and not necessarily one that's going to get perfection by the final frame.

Internal loathing, social awkwardness and lashing out as well as self-deprecation are the orders of the day as Brittany Runs a Marathon's body image message is got across through great swathes of recognition. It's hard to negotiate both insecurities and deal out empathy, but Colaizzo and Bell deliver in spades.

Brittany Runs a Marathon may collapse in gooey sentiment at the end, but it's almost forgivable, given how criminally enjoyable it is.

Hale County This Morning This Evening: NZIFF Review

Hale County This Morning This Evening: NZIFF Review

There's frustration and beauty a-plenty in Hale County This Morning This Evening, a freewheeling doco that plays fast and loose with the traditional idea of a documentary.

Director RaMell Ross has, in truth, constructed something which is more of a moving exhibition of photos and moments to reveal more of Hale County in Alabama.

Using intimate shots, and moments of beauty behind a lens, Ross channels the excitement of a first-time filmmaker, capturing the people and the sights of the area that he came to as a teacher. But a traditional narrative aches to be placed into the context of this documentary, with glimpses rather than fully formed foundations informing his characters and the people within.

From sweat falling onto the ground like raindrops, to a neon pink religious sign glistening in the wind, to two people playing in a car lot while the storms swirl around them in the sky, Ross has an eye for the artful and the artistic in droves.

But punctuating the shots with bizarre title cards does little to add to the experience, and if anything, takes you out of what is clearly meant to be an experimental experience of a filmmaker capturing life at both its most mundane and day-to-day voyeuristic.

It's a frustration more than a condemnation of Hale County This Morning This Evening, because it's guaranteed you won't see a more carefully considered piece of documentary making this year.

But it's also a frustration, because the freeforming nature may capture some wondrous moments of banality and of life in its truly most basic form, yet it does so without turning them into something cohesive.

Come To Daddy: NZIFF Review

Come to Daddy: NZIFF Review

Incredibly Strange programmer and industry stalwart Ant Timpson's directorial debut is a strange slice of sentiment mixed with the usual gonzo horror gore you've come to expect.

A terribly haircutted Elijah Wood is Norval, a hipster musician who's called back to his father's side after a letter shows up without warning decades after they were last seen. But upon Norval's arrival, his father is a crude and unsympathetic father figure, apparently disinterested in his son, but fervently keen in abusing him and mocking his musical success and limited edition Lorde designed phone.

However, things take a turn for the dramatic as time goes on.

To say more about Come To Daddy is to rob the ride of some of the uncertain richness that's portrayed within. And that's kind of the point of most of the film, as it toys with the intimate and preys on the audience expectations.

But what Timpson's delivered, along with writer Toby Harvard, is a film that ripples in parts, and feels under-explored in others as it bends genres and audience hopes.

Shot in close up styles, and with a cast that's best described as intimate, rather than sparse, there is more of emotional heft than you'd expect as you watch Wood's uncertain Norval try to impress his father and reconnect. Wood channels awkwardness and misplaced bluster as he tries to show off, and the excruciating scene is made even stronger by some tautly shot moments and some wide angles suggesting the divide between them.

Apparently, there are autobiographical elements within, and one senses the early scenes speak to a generational gap that has been witnessed for years as families try to reconcile their hopes for their siblings / paternal relationships.

Timpson makes great fist of the claustrophobia here and there, and never loses the propensity for laughs - obvious or otherwise (a plastic bag on a beach being one of the chief examples).

But when the film moves out of the confines of its dramatic journey and into genre areas it's destined to fulfill, it loses some of the scope that's kept it together as it looks to satiate an audience seeking a gore quota and a sleaze factor.

The payoff is an interesting one, and one which speaks volumes to the relationship, but which to discuss more is to spoil - ultimately, Come To Daddy may offer a Friday night's worth of entertainment, but it's never as gory or as humorous as it could or should be.

And for that element alone, it's more of a sentimental film than you'd ever expect from Timpson et al - and all the more interesting because of it.

NZIFF 2019 Q&A Justin Pemberton, director of Capital In The Twenty-First Century

NZIFF 2019 Q&A Justin Pemberton, director of Capital In The Twenty-First Century

My film is....Capital In The Twenty-First Century

The moment I'm most proud of is....

A scene with a young Margaret Thatcher where she says, “I don’t think there’ll be a woman prime minster in my lifetime”. She’s a poster child for the post-war era of high social mobility - an ordinary shopkeeper's daughter from the North who becomes Britain's first female prime minister and very wealthy. 

The reason I carried on with this film when it got tough is.....Because the only way out is through.

The one moment that will resonate with an audience is.......

The rigged game of monopoly. It’s a simple but powerful experiment by a psychologist who shows some remarkable behaviours changes in people.

The hardest thing I had to cut from this film is........ 
Bitch Better Have My Money by Rhianna - we played with the track in an early cut but it was impossibly expensive to clear the rights. Thankfully there’s loads of other great pop-culture moments I did get to use in the movie, so I don’t miss it. 

The thing I want people to take from this film is ...... 

To see how our relationship with capital has changed over time and get people talking about how it needs to change again.

The reason I love the NZIFF is.......

It’s the prefect excuse to slack off work and to over-indulge in film... plus there’s always a great collection of docos.

What I want to see at this year's NZIFF is......

Amazing Grace, Meeting Gorbachev,  Sorry We Missed You, Where’s My Roy Cohn?

The one thing I'd say to aspiring filmmakers is.....

Always be able to tell your story in one sentence.